UpdateBAIC Motor seeks No.1 position in luxury car segment in China

BAIC Motor is aiming to become the No. 1 seller in mainland China’s premium vehicle market by 2020 as the Beijing-based carmaker, partly owned by German giant Daimler, also plans to keep its position as the fourth biggest seller among Sino-foreign joint ventures in the mass market.

“As a key business partner of Daimler in China, the company is highly consistent with Daimler in terms of strategic objective,” BAIC Tuesday said in a filing to Hong Kong’s stock exchange on its five-year strategic plan unveiled on Monday at the firm’s fifth anniversary ceremony.

“The Company recognises the strategic objective of Daimler to resume the world’s No.1 position by 2020 and will assist in promoting the ultimate achievement of this objective.”

A Chinese brokerage auto sector analyst who cannot be named due to company policy said reaching the goal is “hopeful but challenging.”

BAIC and Daimler’s joint venture plans to expand its annual output capacity to 700,000 units by 2020, while Volkswagen’s Audi already has a capacity of 600,000 units, she said.

But Mercedes sales is projected to grow 75 per cent to 250,000 units this year thanks to new product launches, much higher than single-digit percentage growths expected of BMW and Audi, she added.